Bingo!

By Daniel MacIvor

Five classmates come together for their thirtieth high-school reunion. Some see it as a welcome trip home, while others see it as an obligation, and a few never even left. But as the night wears on, the one-time classmates start to reconnect and reminisce. And the more alcohol that’s consumed the closer the friends come to confronting their darkest secrets.

Once again, Daniel MacIvor proves to us that just because we’re all grown up doesn’t mean we have everything figured out. His characters are sometimes naive, often crass, but always honest. As they try to reclaim their high-school glory days, these five friends charge headfirst into the secrets they all tried to run so far from.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Nov 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781770910027

Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvor is one of Canada’s most accomplished playwrights and performers. Winner of the prestigious Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize, the GLAAD Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and many others, Daniel’s plays have been met with acclaim throughout North America.

Book preview

BINGO!

Daniel MacIvor

Playwrights Canada Press

Toronto

Also by Daniel MacIvor

One Voice: House and Here Lies Henry

Never Swim Alone & This Is a Play

See Bob Run & Wild Abandon

I Still Love You: Five Plays

The Soldier Dreams

Marion Bridge

His Greatness

How It Works

You Are Here

Cul-de-sac

Monster

In On It

Bingo! © Copyright 2011 by Daniel MacIvor

Playwrights Canada Press

The Canadian Drama Publisher

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phone [phone], fax [phone]

[e-mail] • www.playwrightscanada.com

No part of this book, covered by the copyright herein, may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical—without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a licence from:

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phone [phone]

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact:

Thomas Pearson at ICM Talent, [e-mail]

Cover photo © Copyright Janet MacLellan

Cover design by Carolyn McNeillie

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

MacIvor, Daniel, 1962-

Bingo! [electronic resource] / Daniel MacIvor.

Play.

Electronic monograph.

Issued also in print format.

ISBN 978-1-77091-002-7

I. Title.

PS8575.I86B55 2011 C812'.54 C2011-906847-8

cip

Playwrights Canada Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and of the Province of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council and the Ontario Media Development Corporation for our publishing activities.

For Norm

Table of Contents

Title Page

Also by Daniel MacIvor

Copyright Page

Dedication

Bingo!

Production Information

Characters

Act One

Scene One

Scene Two

Act Two

Scene One

Scene Two

Scene Three

Scene Four

About the Author

Bingo! was first produced by Mulgrave Road Theatre at Halifax’s Neptune Studio on July 26 and 27, 2011, and toured to Guysborough’s Chedabucto Place and Glace Bay’s Savoy Theatre from July 29–August 3. The cast and crew were:

Heather Rankin: Kathy Bitsy Cameron

John Beale: Paul Nurk Kenney

Marty Burt: Dougie Dookie Duke

Ryan Rogerson: Jeff Heffer MacInnis

Emmy Alcorn: Laura Boots Boutlier

Director: Daniel MacIvor

Dramaturge: Iris Turcott

Assistant director: Richie Wilcox

Costume design: Janet MacLellan

Set design: Andrew Murray

Lighting design: Victoria Williams

Characters

Paul Nurk Kenney

Dougie Dookie Duke

Jeff Heffer MacInnis

Laura Boots Boutlier

Kathy Bitsy Cameron

Act One

¶ Scene One

NURK, a man in his forties stands alone. He speaks to the audience.

Nurk: We were friends. It was long ago. Pierre Trudeau was the prime minister. We drove Gremlins and Pacers and Volares. Gasoline was still sold by the gallon. We were going to the movies to watch Apocalypse Now and The Empire Strikes Back. M*A*S*H was keeping us home on Wednesday nights to watch television. Disco didn’t quite suck yet and everybody’s mother thought Rod Stewart was sexy. We had just survived the seventies and phrases like the Internet and crack cocaine and global warming hadn’t been invented. We drank a lot and smoked cigarettes and were always searching the house looking for some rumoured hallucinogen. Smoking tea bags rolled with nutmeg could get you high. It couldn’t. We drank a lot. We were teenagers, anything was possible, everything was ahead of us. We were friends. We waited by the phone, we ran to the phone, we made crank calls on the phone. Do you have pop in the cooler? Telephones used to hang in kitchens with cords on them and you had to stand beside them to talk. People smoked cigarettes on airplanes, in classrooms, in doctor’s offices. Reality television was the news. Rap was something we did to Christmas presents. We were friends. We were friends with people we now have nothing in common with. Some of us. We all had nicknames. Sometimes our nicknames were more complicated than our real names. I was Paul. Why did I need a nickname? Wasn’t Paul easy enough to remember? But we were friends. And we lived in a place that we would always and forever remember as a place called home. And that meant something. Thirty years ago. And it still does…

DOOKIE and HEFFER, also in their late forties, enter and join NURK as he continues.

Here. Now. Tonight.

The three men do shooters then whoop. Lights up quickly. A hotel room.

Dookie: Is that the one?

Heffer: Is that the one?

Nurk: Not for me.

HEFFER hits DOOKIE in the stomach.

Heffer: Dookie!

DOOKIE hits HEFFER